From Gibanica to Pizza. Changes in Slovene Diet in the Twentieth Century

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UDC: 392.8:316.7(497.4)"19" ; 641.5(497.4)"19" DOI:10.2298/GEI1002114G Accepted for publication: 29.09.2010.

Maja Godina Golija Institute of Slovene Ethnology, SRC SASA, Ljubljana [email protected]

Throughout the history of mankind, the supply and production of food have been basic economic activities in all civilisations. Food is intimately connected with social and ethnic group, one’s way of life, with the family and its financial position. The food of the majority of the Slovenian population in the Twentieth Century was inadequate and monotonous. Although the quantity of food available was adequate, it lacked numerous staples for which cheaper ingredients were substituted. Changes in Slovene diet were mainly connected with the greater mobility of the rural population, employment in the towns, and faster circulation of goods in the 1960s and 1970s. For the most of Slovene population food become more easily accessible as in the past, in comparison to other items, food expense decreased considerably. Key words: diet, daily meals, Slovene, everyday dishes, festive dishes, food in inns

Introduction

In the first half of the 20th century, Slovenia was predominantly an agrarian country, most of its population were farmers living in the countryside and tilling the land. Larger towns were scarce and still idyllically provincial. Their population consisted mostly of tradesmen, manufacture and trade shop workers, people who provided different services, and domestics. The elite, consisting of the no- bility and the upper class, was sparse. Although the gradual industrialization after the First World War changed this situation to a certain extent, in 1921 66% of Slovenes still worked in agriculture. At present, their number amounts to only around 4%.1 The current population of Slovenia amounts to 2,053,740 people inhabiting an area of about twenty thousand square kilometres. Since 57%

1 Janez Cvirn et. al., Ilustrirana zgodovina Slovencev, Mladinska knjiga, Ljubljana 2000, 339.

117 Гласник Етнографског института САНУ LVIII (2) of the population is Catholic; 2. 3% Serbian Orthodox; and 2. 4% Muslim, reli- gion does not play a key role in the life and food of Slovenes.2

Major Foodstuffs

Until the 1960s, Slovene farmers worked the land for their own household needs, primarily to feed their families and less to market their crops. It is there- fore possible to say that this was the time when the food culture in Slovenia was still very much geographically differentiated and staples had not yet been bought in stores. According to ethnological classification, there were four major types of food culture in Slovenia. The eastern, Pannonian type is based on crops like wheat and buckwheat. Meals made from wheat and buckwheat flour consisted of different types of pasta, leavened pies, which were often filled with cottage cheese, and breads.3 Dishes were flavoured with sour cream and cottage cheese, red pepper powder, or poppy seeds. Abundant crops of pumpkins, not grown anywhere else in Slovenia, yielded excellent pumpkin oil widely used in cooking. The northern type, or the Alpine type, is typical for the hills, mountains, and forest areas of the north. With the exception of corn and buckwheat its harsh climate does not provide adequate conditions for agriculture but is suitable for animal husbandry and Alpine dairy farming. The food culture of this region was thus based mainly on dairy products such as milk, sour milk, curd, cheese, and corn and buckwheat mush. Venison, which was rare in other parts of Slovenia, could also be found on the tables of local households. Game meat was also cured and made into sausages and other meat products.4 Consisting of staples that grew best in this climate, the central type was characteristic for central Slovenia. In addition to buckwheat and millet, farmers planted tuberous vegetables such as potatoes and turnips. Buckwheat and millet porridge, boiled in water or milk, was prepared frequently, as were cabbage and turnips. This was the first Slovene region whose population started in the 19th century to include the potato in its daily meals. Prepared in a number of ways, potatoes quickly became very popular.5 With its warm Mediterranean climate and karstic soil, western Slovenia ga- ve birth to the Mediterranean type of food culture.6 The barren soil, not rich enough to produce cereals, is suitable for raising sheep and for growing olive

2 Jerneja Fridl (ed.), Geografski atlas Slovenije, Mladinska knjiga, Ljubljana 1998, 240. 3 Maja Godina Golija, Prehranski pojmovnik za mlade, Aristej, Maribor 2006, 51. 4 M. Godina Golija, Prehranski pojmovnik za …, 51. 5 Vilko Novak, Slovenska ljudska kultura, DZS, Ljubljana 1960, 162. 6 M. Godina Golija Prehranski pojmovnik za…, 52.

118 Maja Godina Golija, From Gibanica to Pizza ... trees and certain kinds of vegetables and fruits: tomatoes, zucchini, chicory, figs, kakis, pomegranates; farmers also grow different types of vine. Among the most frequently consumed foods, usually included in most meals, were the polenta that substituted bread; thick vegetable soups called the minestrone; vegetable and meat sauces; fish; and the widely used olive oil. Changes in the food culture were introduced gradually and were connected with the growing mobility of the rural population. More perceptible changes started to take place at the end of the 1950s, and especially in the 1960s, when the rising standard of living in Slovenia resulted in an increase of its population’s purchasing power. It was during this period that people gradually stopped baking their own bread and make certain other foods by themselves. Instead of making sauerkraut and sour turnip; sour milk, cream, and cottage cheese; meat products, for example several varieties of sausages made from pigs raised and butchered at home; and beverages such as apple cider made from home-grown apples, these foods were purchased from stores. Like bread that was obtained in bakeries and gro- cery stores, people increasingly bought meat products, for instance salami, sausages, and cold cuts; dairy food such as yogurt, sour and whipping cream; industrially-made pasta; rice; pastries and other sweets; and industrially-made beverages such as beer, mineral water, and other soft drinks, particularly sodas.7 At present, the food culture of Slovenes mainly consists of bread and farinaceous products; of potatoes; of meat and meat products; and of dairy products. Vegetables, pulses, and fruit are less important. Slovenia has over a hun- dred varieties of bread prepared by large as well as family-owned bakeries. Wheat flour is an ingredient of pasta whose many kinds are either handmade or made by machines, for example certain types of dumplings such as the žlikrofi, the krpice, and the fuži; and noodles. There are also other popular and widely- consumed farinaceous dishes, for instance the mlinci, crèpes, the Kaiser schmarrn, different strudels, and the so-called gibanice, leavened pies with a variety of fillings. The once widely popular porridge and mush, which in the past repre- sented the basic Slovene dishes and were prepared from buckwheat, millet, and cornmeal, are now seldom consumed. As food for human rather than for animal consumption, the potato was first used in the first half of the 19th century but was already widely popular by the end of that century. Slovenes prepare it in a number of ways. It can be cut to pieces and boiled; as mashed potatoes; roasted; as French fries; and as home fries, namely boiled, sliced and then fried with onions, which is by far the most popular potato dish in Slovenia.8

7 Maja Godina Golija, Oblikovanje sodobnega potrošnika. O spremembah v preskrbi in pri- delavi živil na Slovenskem, Etnolog 18/2008, 104. 8 Maja Godina Golija, Die Kartoffel - Kulturgut mit zunehmender Bedeutung in Slowenien, in “Kulturprägung durch Nahrung : die Kartoffel”, ed. by Sigrid Weggemann, Gertrud Benker, Infotainment Verlags, München 1997, 31-34.

119 Гласник Етнографског института САНУ LVIII (2)

Until approximately the 1920s, most Slovene families consumed meat and meat products only on rare occasions, generally on Sundays and holidays. The meat served at those times was inexpensive, for example the meat of home-raised rabbits and pigs, or store-bought beef. Due to their high prices the venison, veal, and poultry were far too expensive for most people. Many families reared one or two pigs that were butchered in wintertime to provide a supply of meat, meat products, and lard. A variety of sausages, for example blood sausages, li- verwurst, the pečenice (boiled and then fried sausages), hams, prosciuttos, stuffed stomachs, salamis, and bacon were also made.9 Equally important was the preparation of lard, particularly of cracklings and minced lard; as a substitute for meat, these were used in the preparation of all daily meals. Due to a higher standard of living and animal farm factories, which in the 1960s brought meat prices down, meat consumption patterns changed considerably. Many Slovene families now eat meat several times a day. Eaten frequently, pork and various processed pork products, for example sausages, spareribs, the shoulder blade, prosciuttos, salamis, and the like are still very popular. There is also an increasing consumption of poultry, particularly chicken and turkey meat, whereas beef, veal, and venison can be found on Slovene dining tables more rarely. Fish was less prominent in the diet of Slovenes. Until the 1930s, freshwater fish, for instance the trout, sheatfish, huchen, pike, barbell, and carp were consumed almost throughout the Slovene territory. Along the Drava and Cerknica Lake, barbells and carps were also dried to be eaten in winter. Inhabitants of the coastal region of Primorska ate mostly sea fish, particularly sardines, European anchovies, the mackerel, codfish, and tuna.10 First preserved in salt, the fish were kept in stone receptacles or dried to be used in winter when they were prepared in a sauce. After the Second World War, sea fish became widely popular throughout Slovenia, which is partly due to a growing interest in, and the pro- motion of, healthy nutrition. In the past, milk and dairy products were more important ingredients of meals than today. Most milk is now consumed for breakfast and with a light snack before noon. The consumption of yogurt and whipping cream has generally increased. Sour cream and cottage cheese, which are also eaten with bread, are used for the preparation of many Slovene dishes such as dumpling and strudels. Slovenia also produces butter and a variety of cheeses; two of them, the mohant and the tolminc, were each given the status of products with the desig- nation of origin.11 As in the past, vegetables and fruit played no major role in the food culture of Slovenia. Legumes, particularly broad beans, lentils, kidney beans, chickpe- as, and green peas, which were once eaten very frequently, were no longer

9 Janez Bogataj, Kuhinja Slovenije, Rokus, Ljubljana 2000, 220. 10 Rajko Ložar, Ljudska hrana, in “Narodopisje Slovencev 1”, Klas, Ljubljana 1944, 203. 11 R. Ložar, op. cit., 169.

120 Maja Godina Golija, From Gibanica to Pizza ... grown in large quantities after the Second World War. By far the most frequently consumed legume of today, the kidney bean is one of, or the principal, ingredient of soups, sauces, and salads. Prepared with fat, it is eaten together with sauerkraut and potatoes. Salad is eaten frequently, particularly cabbage lettuce, but also spring lettuce, lamb’s lettuce, endive, and radicchio. Slovenes often eat kale, sauerkraut, and turnip in wintertime. In the period after the Second World War, Slovene menus started to include vegetables that had come to Slovenia from other parts of Europe, for example tomatoes, green peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, eggplant, zucchini, spinach, and mangelwurzel.12 Written reports on fruit-growing and fruit consumption date from as far back as the 17th century. Mentioned are apples, pears, plums, cherries, sour cherries, peaches, apricots, walnuts, quince, currants, and gooseberries. Just as important were forest fruits, particularly raspberries, huckleberries, strawberri- es, and mushrooms. While most of these fruits used to be dried or boiled they are increasingly eaten fresh.13 The consumption of other fresh fruits, such as im- ported oranges, tangerines, clementines, and bananas, is equally on the rise. In the more distant past, Slovenes drank mostly water, sometimes also beer, mead, and cider. It was not until the modern times that wine and hard liquor became more widely drunk. Richer families also drank coffee, hot chocolate, and tea. Until the middle of the last century, Slovenes ordinarily drank only what they had at home, for example water, homemade cider, and cheap homemade wine. After that period, the consumption of store-bought beverages, particularly beer, mineral water, sodas, and juices, has been steadily increasing. The habit of making and drinking Turkish coffee at home became widespread after the Se- cond World War. Due to its high price coffee was a luxury previously accessible only to the chosen few. Earning the average of three dinars per hour, a wor- ker had to work for twenty-three and a half hours for a kilo of coffee in 1935.14 It was only in the 1960’s that the salaries and the standard of living became high enough for people to be able to afford coffee on a daily basis; at that time coffee has become widely popular among Slovenes.

Cooking

Before the introduction of kitchen stoves and with the exception of the western part of the Slovene territory, where food was cooked over an open hearth, food was generally cooked in ovens. The clay pots used for this purpose could

12 Maja Godina Golija, Vegetables in the food culture of Slovenian urban population between 1850 and 1950, in “The landscape of food : the food relationship of town and country in modern times”, ed. by Marjatta Hietalla, Finnish Literature Society, Helsinki 2003, 64. 13 Angelos Baš, Hrana, in “Slovensko ljudsko izročilo”, Cankarjeva založba, Ljubljana 1980, 116. 14 Maja Godina, Iz mariborskih predmestij, Založba Obzorja, Maribor 1992, 75.

121 Гласник Етнографског института САНУ LVIII (2) either be placed on a sill in front of, or next to, the stove door, pushed into the stove itself when necessary.15 By far the simplest way of preparing food was boiling; it was also the least expensive because it required neither lard nor cooking oil. Needing less atten- tion, the simmering food also enabled the homemaker to do other chores. Since most homemakers also worked in the fields and tended farm animals the finished dishes could easily be reheated upon their return. According to sources, in certain areas local homemakers prepared food solely in the morning before lea- ving for the field or the family vineyard. When family members returned home the food was ready to be reheated and served. Some of the most common dishes, prepared in this manner at least until the middle of the 20th century, were gruel, pap, mush, barley, dumplings, boiled potatoes, cabbage, turnip, soups, and sauces. Farinaceous food, for instance the zlivanka (a type of pancake), the Kaiser schmarrn, leavened pies, and dumplings, was baked in the pekva, a clay- baking pan, or in pans. Meat and meat products such as blood sausages, the pe- čenice, and the mavžlji, which were made of chopped pork or intestines and wrapped in pork membrane, were also prepared in the pekva, but were consumed on very rare occasions. Frying was not as popular as boiling and baking. Employing lard, either plain or mixed with minced meat, homemakers generally made roast potatoes, cabbage, cold mush, polenta, and occasionally offal, for example liver. In a small part of the Slovene territory, food was cooked in kettles, suspen- ded on a chain, over an open hearth; some dishes were baked under a large lid called the čepnja. Separate pieces of meat or even whole animals were spitted and roasted; this traditional way of cooking has been preserved to the present. First introduced in more affluent Slovene households in the middle of the 19th century, wood- and coal-burning stoves became very popular after the First World War. Such modern stoves and greater availability of cooking oil that made baking and frying cheaper and more accessible to most households, made it possible to more often prepare the dishes that up to the 1960s were made mostly on holidays.16 The currently most popular types of kitchen stove are electric and gas ran- ges and electric ovens. Electric or gas barbecue grills, pressure cookers, deep fryers, and electric bread makers are also widely used. New methods of preserving food have in 1980s caused changes in its preparation. Only a small portion of households have the microwave ovens, the electric grill and the friteuse for the roasting and frying of food been establis- hed. After the first wave of consumers’ enthusiasm over such appliances, they have become less and less indispensable kitchen aids. Today, baking in the oven, and cooking, simmering, frying and roasting on the stove are characteri-

15 Irena Keršič, Oris stanovanjske kulture slovenskega kmečkega prebivalstva v 19. stoletju, Slovenski etnograf 33-34/1988-1990, 129. 16 I. Keršič, op. cit., 347.

122 Maja Godina Golija, From Gibanica to Pizza ... stic for the preparation of food in a Slovene kitchen. The microwave oven is used mainly for warming-up food or defrosting it.17

Daily meals and dishes

Due to their great variety it is extremely difficult to describe the daily meals typical for Slovenia in the past and in the present. Meals varied according to regions, to the financial and social position of households, and whether they were of rural or of urban origin. Generally speaking, Slovenes eat three meals a day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Students also eat a light meal at school while some adults consume it during their working hours. The principal meal is hot lunch, which is the heavi- est meal of the day. Dinners are generally more modest. In the past, farmers’ breakfast usually consisted of mush or polenta with milk or sour milk and ersatz coffee made of barley. Some families also ate boiled potatoes or mush and sauerkraut. This breakfast did not significantly differ from the one eaten by poorer urban dwellers who had mostly corn mush or bread, and ersatz coffee.18 White bread was consumed only in wealthier families who also ate rolls and croissants; butter, jam, and honey; and at times eggs, cold cuts, and cheeses. The usual morning beverages in these families were coffee or cocoa. In the second half of the 20th century, breakfast started to change significantly. The main ingredients of breakfast have become bread or rolls spread with butter or margarine, jam, liver or other kinds of pâtés, or topped with salami, sausage, or cheese; eggs are eaten occasionally. Ersatz coffee has been substituted by bean coffee or tea. Some people now include in their breakfast various kinds of cereal, yogurt, and fruit. While breakfast used to be eaten very early in the morning it is now consumed between 6.30 and 7.30 a.m.

In the past, farmers used to eat lunch at noon. It consisted of different kinds of soups; potatoes, sour turnips, and kidney beans or horse beans, barley, milled and buckwheat porridge, mush, dumplings, or some other variety of mealy dishes, for example the zlivanka or the kvasenica (a type of cheesecake). In the summertime they ate salad greens. Meat was eaten sparingly. At the time of he- avy farming chores homemakers served smoked pork. In towns, less-well-to-do families ate potato or vegetable soups with the Kaiser schmarrn, dumplings, or strudels; sometimes they ate mush or potatoes served with sauerkraut or tur-

17 Maja Godina Golija, Oven-cooking stove-microwave: changes in the kitchen appliances in Slovenia, in “Food and Material Culture”, ed. By Marten Schärer, Alexander Fenton, Tuckwell Press, East Linton 1998, 92-93. 18 V. Novak, Slovenska ljudska kultura…, 164.

123 Гласник Етнографског института САНУ LVIII (2) nips.19 In prosperous families, soup was always followed by the main course consisting of meat dishes such as cutlets, boiled beef or roast meat, and served with potatoes or rice, bread dumplings, pasta, or vegetable side dishes such as peas, cauliflower, spinach, or asparagus and salad. These meals always ended with dessert. In the present, Slovene families have lunch upon returning from work, which is between 3 and 4 p.m. Since lunch is their main meal all family members try to eat it together, which owing to the many obligations of adults and children alike is becoming increasingly difficult. The mother usually makes lunch. It consists of soup made from beef or from chicken, potato, kidney been, or kohlrabi. Soup is followed by the main course, which can be stewed meat, goulash, fricassee, cutlets or ragout made from minced meat, etc. Meat is served with pasta, potatoes or rice. Once very popular mush, polenta, and porridge are now very seldom seen on Slovene dining tables. They have been replaced by new dishes and ingredients, particularly those that have been taken over from the Italian cuisine and have become very popular: pizza, tortellini, lasagna, and gnocchi, all served with a variety of sauces. Consumed simultaneously with the main course, the most common salad is made with lettuce or with radicchio; in the summer, the salad can be made from tomatoes, cucumbers, or green peppers while in winter it is mainly made from sauerkraut or pickled garden beet. Lunch occasionally ends with fruit or with dessert such as ice-cream, fruit salad, or pudding topped with whipped cream.20 Dinner has always been less important than lunch. Farmers used to eat dinner after they had finished with their chores and have returned to their house upon dusk. Their dinner often consisted of dishes such as corn or buckwheat mush; boiled potatoes served with sauerkraut or turnips; salad; pumpkins prepared with flour and lard; porridge made from millet boiled in milk; or pap. Poorer urban families ate either mush with ersatz coffee; kidney bean or potato salad; grits made with milk; or pap. Well-situated urban families ate bread, sausage, eggs, cheese, the Kaiser schmarrn, crèpes, omelets, or rice pudding.21 Family members now often eat dinner separately. It usually takes place between 7 and 9 p.m, depending on their hunger or when they were able to return home. Dinner customarily does not consist of warm dishes; instead, it is often bread with different spreads or with cheese, ham, or salami, combined with tea, fruit, or yogurt. Mothers occasionally prepare foods from their childhood that are very popular: milk rice or groats; cornmeal with milk or coffee substitutes; pancakes with jam; or the Keiser schmarrn.

19 R. Ložar, Ljudska hrana…, 208. 20 Maja Godina Golija, Oblikovanje sodobnega potrošnika. O spremembah v preskrbi in pri- delavi živil na Slovenskem, Etnolog 18/2008, 107. 21 Maja Godina Golija, Prehrana v Mariboru v dvajsetih in tridesetih letih 20. stoletja, Zalo- žba Obzorja, Maribor 2006, 56.

124 Maja Godina Golija, From Gibanica to Pizza ...

In recent years, some Slovenian families try to eat more wholesome foods. They frequently buy foodstuffs, particularly vegetables and fruit, in an open-air market where vendors sell their biologically grown food. Family members eat less sugar, especially white sugar, and less animal fats. Dishes are often prepared with olive or rapeseed oil. They try to include sea fish, for instance mackerel, cod, or sole, in their weekly menus at least once; the fish are usually fried or grilled. With the exception of bread, fruit, and vegetables, which are daily bought from smaller groceries, families habitually purchase food in large super- markets once a week.22 Feeling that home-grown food is tastier and of higher quality, families are especially glad to be able to obtain certain vegetables and fruits from their country relatives.

Eating Out

Prior to World War II most Slovene inns already had a long tradition. In general, they could be divided into village and urban inns, on the one hand, and neighbourhood inns, on the other. Town guests usually went to the latter on holidays and at weekends. Boarders visited urban inns for their lunch and dinner, and in the morning local craftsmen and tradesmen gathered in regular groups at tables, so-called štamtiš, for light meals. The innkeepers prepared for them and other random forenoon guests several pre-cooked dishes that were cheap but tasty and rich, such as sour soup made of chicken gizzards, pork and beef goulash, chicken and calf stew, pea and onion beef stew, spicy tripe in sauce, lungs or other innards in sauce, and fried liver and brains.23 The dishes that were being offered in Slovene inns before the Second World War were typical of the so-called Viennese cuisine. Important were no- vel meat dishes, among which goulash and cutlets, particularly the Wiener schnitzel, were the most popular. Lunch at an inn noted for its ‘good plain family cooking’ consisted of the following dishes: soup (beef soup with home- made noodles, fried peas, groats or liver dumplings, or cauliflower, spinach, or tomato soup), meat (roast pork, veal, venison or tenderloin, cutlets, Wiener and Parisian schnitzel, fried or roast chicken, capon, roast turkey, goose, or duck), side dish (potatoes, especially fried, mashed in skins, or French fries, which ap- peared at the beginning of the 20th century; boiled or stewed rice; fried potato rolls; or bun dumplings), and salad. Guests could also choose among different

22 Maja Godina Golija, Slovene food Consumption in the Twentieth Century – From Self- Sufficiency to Mass Consumerism, in “The rise of obesty in Europe: a twentieth century food history”, ed. By Derek J. Oddy, Peter J. Atkins, Virginie Amilien, Ashgate, Farnham 2009, 44. 23 Maja Godina, Maribor 1919-1941. Oris družabnega življenja, Založba Obzorja, Maribor 1986, 19.

125 Гласник Етнографског института САНУ LVIII (2) puddings, the Kaiser schmarrn, crèpes with home-made jam, stewed fruit, and so on.24

In the 1930s the influence of immigrants was felt. Apart from new ingredients, they also brought with them new eating habits. Newcomers from the Pri- morska region, who had fled from fascist Italy to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, influenced the appearance of certain new dishes in the inns. Tripe began to be cooked in the Trieste way with parsley and garlic; inns started to provide the white bread from Primorska called bige and smoked ham. Salt-water fish and seafood gained in popularity. Usually these dishes were prepared by cooks from Primorska, who rented and managed numerous restaurants in Slovenia. Immigrants from other parts of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, particularly members of the Serbian army, spread some ingredients of Serbian cuisine to the Slovene region. Some previously unknown dishes became very popular, such as green peppers stuffed with meat, sour cabbage leaves stuffed with rice and minced meat called sarma, and meat grilled or skewered. In the 1930s inns in the suburbs of towns started to offer broiled sucking pigs, grilled products of minced meat either rolled into little elongated čevapčiči or into slightly larger patti- es called pleskavice.25 Among the most popular restaurants since the mid-1970s are those that ser- ve Italian food, particularly pizza and lasagna. In the last decade and a half, a segment of the Slovene population started to frequent restaurants serving Chine- se, Indian, Thai, and Mexican food.

Festive foods

Until the middle of the 20th century, the food culture of the Slovene population depended on the days of the week. While Slovenes generally observed the fast on Fridays their Sunday diet was richer than during the week, with the meals usually including food that was pricier and of better quality. The same can be said of festive foods served on holidays; those that celebrated the end of difficult farm chores, for example harvest and vintage; and those prepared when farmers butchered their pigs in wintertime. On the other hand, birthdays and na- me days ordinarily did not require any special food; the only exceptions were weddings and sometimes baptism feasts.26 Families tried to include in their Sunday meals richer meat dishes and farinaceous desserts generally not eaten on weekdays. Although there were people who ate meat, for example sausages, spareribs, or ham even for breakfast meat dishes were generally only served for lunch and dinner. A typical Sunday lunch

24 M. Godina Golija, Prehrana v Mariboru , 114. 25 M. Godina Golija, Prehrana v Mariboru…, 104. 26 R. Ložar, Ljudska hrana…, 208.

126 Maja Godina Golija, From Gibanica to Pizza ... started with a meat soup, usually a beef broth with home-made noodles or with grits or liver dumplings. The main course could be beef that had been boiled for the soup, for instance, or smoked pork with horseradish; prosperous families also ate roasted veal or pork; tenderloin; or fried chicken. The homemakers baked dessert, for example a bund cake, an apple or cottage cheese strudel, or a leavened pie with filling. Dinner often consisted of food that had been left over from lunch: leftover pieces of cold roast or chicken, a salad, and dessert. Many Slo- vene families still eat very similar dishes on Sundays. Christmas and Easter have always been among the most important Slovene holidays. Christmas preparations started several days earlier with the making of Christmas bread, cookies, and the potica (nut roll). This was also the time when most Slovene families butchered a pig to have an abundance of fresh meat and sausages for Christmas and New Year's celebrations. The day before Christmas was traditionally a fast day that was devoutly observed. During the day, people ate only legumes, vegetable soups, or pap; some of the more affluent families had fish. On Christmas Eve, meat was allowed once again, particularly after families have returned from midnight mass. Traditionally it was either blood sausages or the pečenice, or roasted pork; urban middle classes sometimes ate fish such as boiled trout or fried carp. The festive meal ended with the potica, a roll filled with nut, poppy seed, or chocolate filling, more rarely also with carob, hazelnut, or co- conut filling; with home-made festive cookies; and with fruit bread. Fasting is generally no longer observed, and new dishes have become a part of Christmas menus: beefsteak tartare, for example; French salad, which is a mixture of diced potatoes, peas, cucumbers, eggs, and mayonnaise; sponge and layer cakes.27 Another important Slovene holiday is Easter. Traditionally, the foods consumed on Easter have not changed for centuries. Families prepare a basketful of Easter food, the so-called žegen. The žegen consists of boiled or baked ham, or of the šoblek (filled pork stomach) in Alpine regions, or of prosciutto in Istria; home-made sausages; white bread or white bread made with milk; horseradish; and the pirhi (boiled colored eggs). Traditional Easter pastries are the potica, the ptički and the menihi (small pasties made from fine flour leavened dough). A typical Easter dish from central Slovenia and Primorsko is the aleluja. Made of dried turnip peels, the aleluja evokes the memory of the time of severe fami- ne during the Easter of 1529.28

Festive foods are closely associated with traditional customs and religious beli- efs. As far as festive cakes, biscuits, and other pastries are concerned; it can thus be argued that novelties have been much rarer in this area than in other areas of festive foods. According to research, more new elements were introduced in Sunday menus and on some other festive occasions, for instance weddings. Such close connec- tion with family and local traditions can also be explained with the fact that on im-

27 Maja Godina Golija, Materialne sledi kulture. Prazniki in praznična miza Slovencev v 20. in 21. stoletju, Tradtiones 37/2, 2008, 115. 28 M. Godina Golija, Materialne sledi kulture…, 112.

127 Гласник Етнографског института САНУ LVIII (2) portant traditional holidays festive dishes were usually prepared by the oldest wo- men in the family, for instance grandmothers, who were the most familiar with the festive traditions and for whom they also held the most sentimental value.29 This is why the traditional preparation and consumption of holiday foods reflect some of the oldest, and most traditional, elements of rural life.

Conclusion

Throughout the history of mankind, the supply and production of food have been basic economic activities in all civilisations, and all other practices practised by communities have been subordinated to them. Anthropologist and ethnologist treated food and eating by seeing the patterned relationship between substances and human groups as form of communication.30 Raw ingredients must be placed in a meal context, rules developed for how the food should be transformed into a dish, how it should be eaten, which other food products the dish can be mixed with, and when in the day, week or year it should be served.31 By far the most thoroughly researched segment of Slovene food culture fo- cused in ethnological studies on festive dishes, less has been written about the changes in the food culture after the Second World War, about new dishes and their introduction and incorporation in the daily menus. In Slovenia changes were mainly connected with the greater mobility of the rural population, employment in the towns, and faster circulation of goods in the 1960s. At that time the most frequently consumed foods in Slovenia were bread and other farinaceous products, milk and other dairy products, then vegetables, meat, and fruit followed these. In the last two decades we can indicate changes in the structure of meals and food purchasing. The Slovene population spent more on meat, sugar, and sweets, which seems to indicate that these foods have become a much more important factor in the Slovene diet as decades before, a relatively smaller amo- unt of money being spent on vegetables and fruit.32 For the most of Slovene population food become more easily accessible as in the past, in comparison to other items, food expense decreased considerably.

29 Stephen Mennell, Anne Murcot, Anneke H. van Otterloo, Prehrana i kultura. Sociologija hrane, Jesenski i Turk, Zagreb 1998, 131. 30 Sidney W. Mintz, Time, Sugar, and Sweetness, in “Food and Culture” , ed. by Carole Co- unihan, Penny van Esterik, Routledge, New York, London 2008, 91. 31 Richard Tellström, The construction of food and meal culture for politicaland commercial ends: EU-summits, rural busineses and World Exhibitions, Örebro Studies in Culinary Arts and Meal science 5, Örebro 2006, 21. 32 Maja Godina Golija, Oblikovanje sodobnega potrošnika…, 107.

128 Maja Godina Golija, From Gibanica to Pizza ...

Маја Година Голија

Од гибанице до пице. Промене у исхрани Словенаца у 20. веку

Кључне речи: исхрана, оброци, Словенци, свакидашња јела, празнична јела, иновације у исхрани, храна ван куће

Исхрана је област културе која је уско повезана са породичном зајед- ницом, материјалним положајем породице, њеном верском и етничком припадношћу. До средине 20. века, материјални положај већине словенач- ких породица био је слаб; велики број активности чланова породице био је повезан са обезбеђивањем довољне количине хране, а у мањој мери – са стицањем зараде довољне за куповину хране. Током 50–тих и 60–тих го- дина 20. века, куповини хране био је намењен највећи део дохотка дома- ћинстава у Словенији, док је његов мањи део коришћен за подмиривање трошкова становања и куповине одеће и обуће. Храна Словеначких поро- дица била је у том периоду још веома зависна од природног окружења и услова њене припреме у завичају, због чега је поседовала велику регио- налну разноликост и била заснована на властитим производима, онима ко- је су домаћинства добијала од родбине. Међутим, од средине 60–тих годи- на 20. века, са већим запошљавањем становништва у индустрији, миграци- јом људи у урбане центре и постепеним растом животног стандарда, ис- храна се изразито мења, а удео куповне и готове хране у оброцима расте. Храна у различитим пределима Словеније постаје све сличнија, а регио- налне карактеристике полако ишчезавају. Разлике у саставу оброка, зави- сно од дана у недељи, такође полако ишчезавају. У првој половини 20. ве- ка и касније проналазимо велике разлике између оброка које су домаћице припремале током посних дана, недељом и радним данима. Специјалитети и ретка јела припремала су се само за празнике. Са већом куповном моћи расту квалитет и разноврсност оброка, а разлике између појединих дана у недељи и даље се смањују. Према налазима истраживача у области исхране, Словенија се убраја у конзервативније делове Европе, јер се ручак, упркос високом нивоу запо- слености жена, одржао као главни оброк, који у већини домаћинстава сви чланови породице настоје да конзумирају заједнички. За разлику од зема- ља Западне Европе, вечера нема већи значај, а чланови породице често за тај оброк појединачно конзумирају тек лакша, хладна јела. Конзумирање хране у угоститељским објектима у Словенији има бо- гату традицију, јер писани извори о угоститељској делатности потичу из раног средњег века. На преласку из 19. у 20. век усталила су се још нека карактеристична гостионичка јела, као нпр. гулаш, котлети, печења и беч- ка шницла, што је и данас типична гостионичка храна. Са настанком Кра-

129 Гласник Етнографског института САНУ LVIII (2)

љевине Југославије после Првог светског рата, те пресељавањем Примора- ца и Срба у словеначке градове, устаљују се нова јела, – нпр. шкембићи на тршћански начин, пршут са бигом, морска риба и лигње, млада прасетина са ражња и пљескавице, као и ћевапчићи. Од средине 70-их година 20. ве- ка, у угоститељску понуду почињу да се увршћују, пре свега, италијанска јела – пица, лазање, њоки, тортелини, карпаћо, итд. Веће промене у исхрани Словенаца одигравале су се и у области пра- зничних јела и оброка. После Другог светског рата почело је напуштање обичаја посних дана и поста уочи великих календарских празника, нпр. уочи Бадње вечери, Ускрса и Чисте среде. Нека стара посна јела данас су готово заборављена. Највећи број традиционалних састојака исхране одр- жао се у време значајних календарских празника код Словенаца – за Бо- жић и божићно вече, када се унутар породица припремају јела, пре свега – „потице“ (савијаче) и пишкоте по опробаним рецептима преношеним са генерације на генерацију. Снажну повезаност са породичном и локалном традицијом можемо објаснити и чињеницом да су празнична јела за најзначајније календарске празнике, Божић и божићно вече, најчешће припремале најстарије жене у породици, нпр. старе мајке, које су и најбоље познавале празнично преда- ње. У припреми и конзумирању хране за празнике одржали су се неки вео- ма стари, традиционални облици сеоског живота, пренети на млађе члано- ве породице. Слично налазима европских етнолога, веће промене доживе- ли су неки други празнични оброци, као нпр. они за венчања и личне пра- знике, у која се укључују многе новине – пробају нови рецепти и припре- мају нова, мање позната јела. Празнична храна је и данас, као и у прошлости, уско повезана и са обичајима и облицима веровања. Жене поимају и изражавају идентитет, традицију, правила заједнице, и све то уз припрему празничних јела, њи- хову расподелу и послуживање осталим члановима породице. Брину се о поштовању верских заповести од којих би други чланови заједнице радо одустали, и које се захваљујући њиховој истрајности одржавају. Многа празнична јела која жене припремају јесу отелотворење симбола заједни- це, а ритуали припреме празничних јела изражавају прожимање њиховог свакодневног рада у домаћинству са веровањем људи и локалном традици- јом.

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